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Betsy-Tacy #9

Betsy and the Great World

maud hart lovelace vera neville anna quindlen

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Betsy's childhood dream is finally coming true: she's off to Europe just like she and Tacy planned so long ago. Despite her travels and many adventures, Betsy's heart won't let her forget Joe Willard, her high school sweetheart.

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1952
Series
Betsy-Tacy
Places
mankato minnesota, deep valley minnesota, europe, 

This edition

Format
384 pages, Paperback
Published
March 31, 1996 by HarperTrophy
ISBN
9780064405454
ASIN
0064405451
Language
English

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About the author

Profile Image for maud hart lovelace

maud hart lovelace

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Maud Hart Lovelace was born on April 25, 1892, in Mankato, Minnesota. She was the middle of three children born to Thomas and Stella (Palmer) Hart. Her sister, Kathleen, was three years older, and her other sister, Helen, was six years younger. “That dear family" was the model for the fictional Ray family.

Maud's birthplace was a small house on a hilly residential street several blocks above Mankato's center business district. The street, Center Street, dead-ended at one of the town's many hills. When Maud was a few months old, the Hart family moved two blocks up the street to 333 Center.

Shortly before Maud's fifth birthday a “large merry Irish family" moved into the house directly across the street. Among its many children was a girl Maud's age, Frances, nicknamed Bick, who was to be Maud's best friend and the model for Tacy Kelly.

Tib's character was based on another playmate, Marjorie (Midge) Gerlach, who lived nearby in a large house designed by her architect father. Maud, Bick, and Midge became lifelong friends. Maud once stated that the three couldn't have been closer if they'd been sisters.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
30(30%)
4 stars
38(38%)
3 stars
32(32%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
ameo_sz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I've only started reading Betsy-Tacy books, and have to read them as they come from the library, but I have to say I didn't particularly like this one. It didn't have much of a plot, and it's style was more anecdotal - little adventures that she was going through on her trip to Europe. I found it to be pretty boring, truthfully.
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darth_derrick
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Part of me wants to read the version of the end of the story where Betsy stays in Europe and marries Marco. But then there is that wonderful ending and I remember how much I love Joe.
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old-creepy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I missed Deep Valley so much, but I loved reading about Betsy's adventures abroad! I especially enjoyed her time in Italy. I loved Marco! Betsy was a strong woman to not fall in love with him - such a romantic italian. I mean, I LOVE Joe, don't get me wrong, but reading about Marco also gave me butterflies. She had a hard choice to make. She ultimately made the right choice, and now I can have Marco to myself.

It was interesting to read the book knowing that WWI was right around the corner. There were hints in the story that it was coming, but the benefit of historical fiction is knowing what's going to happen before it does. Her time in Europe (Germany and Italy especially) is mostly carefree and idyllic until she reaches London and the war breaks out. It lended some poignancy to the story knowing that those beautiful people and places she just spent so much time in are now caught up in the crushing hands of fate and will never be the same.

But oh my goodness does Betsy have some pride that she needs to learn to swallow. She knew she'd hurt Joe but refused to write to him and apologize which was just SO INFURIATING. Actually, both Betsy and Joe have a streak of pride in them that is not particularly flattering and they'll have to work on in their future marriage. Not to get all preachy, but fessing up when you're wrong and apologizing is like relationship 101. But no. Betsy needed to find an EXCUSE in order to write to Joe, and even when she does finally write him, she doesn't apologize. Just. Betsy. Come on. But, their reconciliation is still heart melting and Joe's response to her in the newspaper was swoony. Once I finished the book I had to pick up the next one right away just so I could witness their reunion immediately.
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ahsx
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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“A little list of things Miss Ray adores: islands, balconies, sunrises…Waltzing.” Betsy celebrates “A strange birthday with no cake or presents, just the wine of traveling alone…seeing strange places, meeting new people, struggling with a foreign language!” She saw herself “as a woman of the world who would travel and write for many years before she married–if she married at all…You don’t know how kind people are until you go traveling…Travel is very broadening.”

Betsy’s high school years are defined by the men she pursues, and her Great World venture is no different. When Betsy discovers her love boat interest has a wife and family of five, her Irish crush leaves her heart crushed. “She wasn’t…coming down with anything. She was getting over something…Not all married men are middle-aged and fatherly…skim milk masquerades as cream…The first lesson she had learned on her travels had left her feeling cynical…Was life always like that, she wondered? A game of hide and seek in which you only occasionally found the person you wanted to be?” But “it would be a pretty poor world if we couldn’t sweep up our mistakes, now and then, and go ahead.”

But Betsy also discovers the nuanced nature of relationships. “He had awakened her interest in…faraway places and strange languages, folklore and legends, pictures and books she might never have heard of, beauties of every sort. She would never forget him, although she wasn’t in love with him any more…The bad thing about traveling…was leaving people you got to like–or love…But what a difference, now that she had a friend!”
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Alkemist_123
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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It was so much fun to reread one of my childhood favorites. I got more from it as an adult as I know more about Europe, the class system in Europe of old, and about the start of World War I than I did when I was a teenager.
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ghdmv
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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This was my least-favorite installment of this wonderful series. Most of the book was perfectly lovely- just like the majority of the series. However...

The whole setup with the Joe breakup seemed tacked on. They were so beautifully in love at the end of Betsy and Joe. She could have traveled the world with her relationship in tact. It would not have changed the majority of the book. The angst felt forced on to an entirely unrelated plot. I would have given this a '4' had that not been the case. This wouldn't have been a '5' also because some of the descriptive chapters dragged a bit.

As always, there were some completely delightful parts, some realistically frustrating parts, and so on. Betsy is Betsy, and I am a fan. This just was the weakest book in an amazing series.
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